In: IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 18, No. 3. 1992.
Abstract: This paper investigates a new approach for visually specifying parallel/distributed software using Petri Nets (PN's) extended with Transition Enabling Functions (TEF's). The approach is demonstrated to be useful in the specification of decision-making activities that control distributed computing systems. PN's are employed because of their highly visual nature that can give insight into the nature of the controller of such a system and because of their well-known analytical properties. In oder to increase the expressive power of PN's, the extension of TEF's is used. The main focus of this paper is the specification and analysis of parallel/distributed software and systems. A key element of this approach is a set of rules derived to automatically transform such an extended net into a basic PN. Once the rules have been applied to transform the specification, well-known analytical methods can be used to investigate characteristic properties of the system and validate correct operation.